Dance so Good
by AllWasWellatPigfarts
Summary: Rachel has had a rough year and it's about to get worse. Who will be there to help her through it and more importantly, will she let him?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Another St. Berry. This one came to me after listening to the song Dance So Good by WakeyWakey, one of the only good things about the recent seasons of OTH but this is glee so lets not talk about that =].

I don't own. Obviously.

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It had been a tough year for Rachel. She and Finn had been broken up since Christmas and it seemed that there was nothing she could do to make it up to him. It had been especially difficult when he began legitimately dating Santana. They became the power couple that Rachel had always hoped she and Finn would be.

Losing Finn also meant that she had no one in glee club, so no one really at all she could talk to. She remembered how it had been before glee club had begun but it was harder to go back once she'd experienced actually having someone there to talk to, even if they weren't really paying attention. Finn hadn't been outright mean to her since they had broken up, but he hadn't been nice and he definitely didn't defend her when Santana and Quinn hurled insults at her.

Glee club began to feel like a chore; something she didn't want to, but felt like she had to do. After the "success" (Rachel preferred to think of it as mediocrity) that was sectionals, Mr Schue had continued to divide the solos between the group, and since she had gotten all the solos in the competition the year before and Finn no longer really wanted to sing with her, she didn't get any solos. They came second to the Warblers at Regionals but Mr Schue only saw this as an improvement on the year before, even though Rachel was sure that if they had even considered any of her ideas for the set list and even just given her a voice of solo they might have done better. It was arrogant but this was what she did, what she knew and she thought that they knew and appreciated this. The one thing that Rachel felt gave her a little bit of worth in school seemed easily replaceable to them.

Rachel had spent a lot of her time for the rest of the year practicing solos alone in the auditorium. She was used to her own company as she had spent a lot of her life along but it got her down. She started using her free time to do more dance and voice training. She had told her Dads that she was hanging out with friends, she knew that they would worry with the amount of training she was doing. She hated to admit that she didn't have any friends anymore. Occasionally Puck would back her up in Glee or sit and talk to her but they weren't that close and he and Finn were back to best friends, which she found incredibly hypocritical of Finn, who still hadn't forgiven her.

It was now summer vacation and Rachel had no idea what to do with herself. The summer before she had spent most of her time with Finn, only going to sleep. The glee club had had a few parties and they'd gone, all enjoying themselves and each grateful that they had at least another year. This year she was alone. She knew they'd had a few partied this summer as well but she hadn't been invited, she had seen the pictures on facebook. It had made her cry the first time but she decided to not let it bother her. However, this was easier said than done.

Rachel was currently sitting in the new car that her fathers had bought for her for her birthday. Usually you would get a car for your sixteenth birthday and Rachel didn't know why her father's had waited an extra year. She didn't really mind but she was grateful that now she could just drive around for a few hours. It was better than being cooped up in her bedroom for the whole holiday.

She was tempted to transfer schools like Kurt had done. Without Finn on her arm she had been getting slushie facials more often and glee club wasn't even enjoyable anymore. She was sure that most of the old Vocal Adrenaline would have graduated this year and the spiteful part of her would love to see her former teams reaction if she were to join the opposing team and to win against them would be so satisfying but there was no way she could tell her dads just how bad it was at school, especially when she had been pretending like everything was fine.

Rachel didn't even realise that she was crying as she drove and she tried to control her emotions, at least until she had stopped somewhere private to let it all out. Rachel slowly pulled into a lookout point the was deserted apart from one car. She turned the radio off, not even music could help her right now. Rachel just let it all out, she cried for everything that had happened in the past two years, everything she hadn't dealt with yet. Finn, her mother, Jesse, losing time and time again, Finn again, not fitting in, feeling so alone that she didn't know how to cope, hating herself for not being prettier or easier to get on with and deal with, for not being a better girlfriend, for not being someone people wanted to be friends with, being someone that people can't stand, wanting so desperately to get out of Ohio and begin a life that she would be happy with.

Rachel didn't know how much time had passed since she had been sitting there but eventually she dabbed her face to rid herself of the evidence of her private breakdown. Although she felt some form of catharsis, she still had no idea what she was going to do.

She heard a screech of tires and suddenly everything went black.

xoxo

Jesse had stayed in California for the first month of his summer break. He had finished at the end of May and decided to enjoy some time with his friends in L.A. He really only planned on staying in Akron for a couple of weeks before heading back. He had to check in with family and probably see some friends but he didn't want to spend a lot of time there, he didn't really see the point. After briefly seeing his parent, who quickly headed off for their next exotic destination, he went to see Shelby. She was enjoying motherhood and he was happy for her but it was different for him with her now. He had always thought that she thought of him like a son, but he realised that although they were close for a student and teacher, they weren't as close as he thought. She had barely been able to make time for his visit and although he kind of understood, it still stung.

Seeing Shelby had also brought back memories that he had done quite a good job of avoiding since he had moved to California. Seeing Shelby was the first time that Jesse had thought of Rachel since he left Ohio. He thought back to that day in Shelby's car when she pushed him to get Rachel to listen to the tape even though she had said she wasn't ready. Jesse had done what Shelby wanted because he honestly thought it was for the best. There was also a slightly selfish motive mixed in, if Rachel found Shelby then maybe she would transfer to Carmel and they could be together without the secrets and ulterior motives and he could see if they would truly work as a couple. He had told Shelby that he kind of liked her but he knew that was an understatement, despite the Run Joey Run incident, he was falling her. It was actually the video that helped him see that he did truly care for Rachel and this wasn't just an acting exercise for him. It had taken him a while to realise why it had upset him so much and why he had reacted the way that he had, and why her heartbroken performance of Total ecplipse of the heart actually had him falling apart inside.

When he had found out that Shelby had decided that she didn't want to be a part of Rachel's life anymore he had been more angry than either he or Shelby had expected. He had stormed into her office absolutely livid. What followed couldn't even be described as an argument, it was simply Jesse shouting at her. He couldn't believe that after everything that had happened she had turned Rachel away, he reminded her that he had told her that Rachel didn't feel that she was ready to find out who her mother was but that she had asked him to get her to listen to the tape.

He had been so angry that he had trusted Shelby so explicitly and that she had let him down, even if it wasn't actually him that had been the most disappointed. He hated how much Rachel would be hurt by this and then she would find out that he had gone back to Vocal Adrenaline. He had thought that he would be mostly forgotten in comparison to meeting her mother, and maybe even Shelby could help her through the inevitably break up, but Rachel had just ended up with double the hurt. Then it was time for the annual funkification of the opposing teams and he still couldn't even really think about that.

Once he had gone away to college he immersed himself in his course, his new friends and a busy social life. He hadn't had a girlfriend but there had been plenty of girls hanging off him and a considerable amount of one night stands. He genuinely hadn't thought of Rachel until he came back to town. He debated going to see her or not but decided against it. She was probably happily coupled up with Finn Hudson and she wouldn't need a reminder of him and all the pain that he had brought into her life.

It was a warm day when he and a few Vocal adrenaline friends went to a hidden creek not too far from them. He parked his car at the lookout point and made his way down there. They hung out, drank, swung into the cool water like they had done every summer since he started high school. He was surprised that he actually enjoyed it again. He caught up with a few of his closer friends but mostly they all just a laugh, like old times. As early evening dawned they all decided to go home to get ready for the party that Giselle was having while her parents were away.

Andrea, who Jesse had given a lift to on the way along with Chris and Damien headed back up to the lookout point where his car was parked. As they turned off the twisted footpath that led up from the creek they all noticed that something was wrong. Jesse's car was now at a slight diagonal even though he'd parked it perfectly.

"What the hell?" Jesse muttered.

"Shit, a car's gone into you Jess." Chris said as they saw a car on its side next to his. Observing the dent on the side of the car that was now facing upwards Chris continued "I think another car hit into this one and then drove off. That's what it looks like anyway."

"There's somebody in there guys." Damien told them.

"What?" Andrea asked, shocked.

"Yeah there definitely is, look." He told them. Andrea and Chris went over to peer into the passenger window that was facing the sky. Luckily it was a small car so the could see in, although they doubted it helped if you were to get smashed into by another car. Jesse reached into his pocket for his phone without even bothering to look at the person in the car but Andrea's voice stopped him.

"Jesse, I think it's Rachel Berry." She spoke uncertainly, unsure of what his reaction would be. The two boys also froze, having been at the egging they knew who Rachel was but they hadn't recognised her like Andrea had. Forgetting his phone, Jesse ran to the car and peered into the window. He almost wanted to cry at what he saw; Rachel's head was on the gravel where the window had smashed with the force of the crash, she was unconscious and covered in cuts from all the broken glass. He saw that she didn't have a seat belt on and it made him gulp, he didn't want to think of all the different types of internal injuries she could have, the external ones were bad enough.

He heard Andrea calling an ambulance behind him. He walked around the front of Rachel's car to where there was a slight gap. He was able to move up right next to her, he knew it wasn't safe to move her but he wanted to check her pulse and at least be near her. He saw a pool of blood gathering around her head and the feeling in his stomach worsened. She couldn't be dead. Rachel Berry was destined to be a star, she had to go to New York, be on broadway, win a tony, be happy, live her life. She was not going to die at sixteen, not like this. He wouldn't let it, even if he had to sell his soul, he wouldn't let it. He reached out and felt her neck. It took a while to find it but there was a pulse but it was very faint.

Soon enough, the ambulance arrived and so did a few others who had been down in the creek. There was also a fire engine to help remove Rachel from the car as they couldn't move the car or Rachel with injuring her further, they had to cut her out. Jesse was pushed out of the way, back over to Andrea, Chris and Damien who all silently offered their support. Jesse hadn't even realised that he tears pouring down his face. He assumed that he looked absolutely terrified because that was how he felt.

Jesse was getting frustrated with how long it was taking them to get Rachel out, her life was on the line but they seemed to be taking their sweet time. He knew that rationally this probably wasn't true, but each minute that passed he was worried would cost Rachel more. They didn't even know how long she had been there before they had found her. It wasn't a busy road but it was quite a popular area in the summer so he hoped that since she hadn't been found that it just hadn't been that long, but that could just be wishful thinking. He was clinging to the feel of her faint pulse beneath his fingers, he honestly believed that nothing would feel better than that. The knowledge that her heart was still beating at his fingertips.

"Excuse me." A paramedic interrupted. They then went on to the details off of Chris and Andrea. Then it came to more personal details and they directed the paramedic towards Jesse.

"Do you have contact details for her parents?"

"Um, no. I have her birth mother's number but it's kind of complicated so I don't think that will count-"

"We'll just take that as a no, we'll be able to sort it out at the hospital, don't worry." The paramedic told him consolingly.

He looked over to the car and saw that Rachel was now being lifted out and placed on a gurney.

"Can I go with her?" He asked.

"Are you immediate family?"

"No, but they're not here are they? I don't want her to be alone." He pleaded.

"Okay." The paramedic gave in.

Remembering that his friends were still there he turned to them but they motioned for him to go.

"We'll follow you there." Andrea told him and Chris and Damien nodded.

Jesse accepted it and climbed into the ambulance behind the paramedic who was pushing Rachel in.

The doors closed and for the first time in his life Jesse St. James found himself praying.

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A/N: This isn't at all where I expected this to go and I didn't plan on it being multichapter but I guess it is now lol. Let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as they arrived at the hospital in Akron Rachel was rushed away from Jesse to be checked over and taken into surgery. She still hadn't regained consciousness and Jesse wondered if he would be able to remember what her eye's looked like. He could always look at photographs but he knew that wasn't the same, he wouldn't be able to pretend that she was looking at him. He had always worried that the look in her eyes when he egged her or when he beat her at sectionals would haunt him forever, but now when he wanted to see it he couldn't.

He had only been waiting for about fifteen minutes when Andrea, Chris and Damien found him sitting in a cold plastic chair outside of the OR.

"They just took her into surgery. I'm guessing they spoke to her parents. They won't tell me anything." He spoke in broken up, choppy sentences that even sounded foreign to his own ears. He felt like he'd lost all ability to speak.

"Can we get the full story now? We have some time." Chris asked, using the second part to try and lighten the mood. It didn't work. Jesse didn't feel like rehashing everything that he had done to hurt Rachel and he didn't want the consolation that they would offer once he was done tell them. He didn't deserve it. Besides, the only person who would be able to console him was currently lying on an operating table unconscious, and he doubted she would want to talk to him even if she was awake.

"Jesse." Andrea pushed.

Jesse sighed and looked at her. "Remember when we went to their sectionals?" He didn't need to clarify whose they meant. "Well..."

_Jesse sat next to Shelby watching the last set of sectionals. They had been to the last and seen Aural Intensity win, they were good but wouldn't beat them and so far they doubted that anyone in this competition would either. One was a school for the deaf which was just painful to watch and the other was a school of delinquents using blatant hairography. Nothing particularly worth watching. What had Jesse intrigued, however, was the group sitting in front of them. They were clearly the third group, New Directions he recalled, who all looked like they had jumped off the short bus. They were sitting directly in front of them and Jesse noticed them get more and more irritated as the performances went on. _

_It started when the Jane Adams girls did 'And I'm Telling You'. Sitting directly behind, he was able to hear their conversation._

_"It's a really popular song." One girl turned and said to another. _

_He then saw all their stoic faces when the Jane Adams girls did 'Proud Mary' in wheel chairs and figured that their set list had probably been leaked. He was pretty sure that he was right when he noticed that one of New Directions was actually in a wheel chair. If you're going to steal a performance at least try not to be so obvious, he thought._

_When the deaf school did 'Don't Stop Believing' he figured that they had lost all their numbers. Taking in their reactions, they all looked supremely pissed, as they should be. He wondered how the set list got leaked considering it was split between the two different schools. He doubted that it was just coincidence, people did some outrageous things to win these competitions, Vocal Adrenaline was proof of that. _

_The girl sitting in front of him suddenly stood up. "Meeting in the green room in five minutes!" She told them bossily. She was clearly in charge here. He felt sorry for them, but at least it would mean an easy win at regionals. There is no way they would be able to get three numbers ready to competition standard in the little time that they had left and he doubted from the look of them that they practiced to the same level as VA and so would have another three numbers ready to perform. He couldn't see how they were going to pull back from this. The rest of them slowly got up and followed her five minutes later, leaving the row in front of them empty._

_There was another interval between the deaf school and McKinley. They probably spent the whole time panicking he thought. They all returned to their seats and waited. He assumed that they would withdraw but he soon realised that that wasn't the case. He wondered what they would do, they couldn't go on with three songs that had already been performed._

_Soon the music for 'Don't Rain On My Parade' started and he cringed, without practice this song would be murdered. Then the spotlight went to the back of the theatre and the small bossy girl came out singing. He was amazed by her voice and watched as she confidently made her way up the aisle, flirting with her audience. When she turned around he heard Shelby gasp and look down at the program. _

_"Rachel" He heard her whisper. He thought it was strange but carried on watching the girl who was now on stage. She looked absolutely tiny up there but she owned it. She was a star, that was certain and he could see that they might pose an obstacle. Challenge was too greater word for New Directions because although this girl had buckets of talent, that didn't necessarily mean the group did as well. As the group marched up to join her on stage he noticed that they only just had the right number to qualify for competitions. There was no way that they would be able to compete with the power house that was vocal adrenaline. _

_They went on to do 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' and 'Somebody to Love'. He hated to admit it but although they were quite obviously unrehearsed they were quite good and looked like they were having fun up there. _

"Yeah, Jesse we were there for that."

"I know but after that Shelby told me that Rachel was her daughter."

"So she asked you to go after her?"

"No."

_"What's with you?" Jesse asked Shelby as he sat in the passenger seat of her car._

_"Nothing."_

_"No, you've been weird since New Directions performed. They were good but we've got nothing to worry about." He said, not seeing the problem. "The girl's good though. Really good." He added as an after thought. "Maybe we could poach her." He thought, loving the idea of singing with her, their voices would sound amazing together. _

_"No!" Shelby exclaimed a little too suddenly._

_"What the hell Shelby?" _

_"What I'm about to tell you can go no further, do you understand me?"_

_"Yeah, of course. What is it?" He pushed, his promise a little too insincere to be believable but Shelby needed to tell someone. She found it quite pathetic that the only person she could tell was one of her students._

_"17 years ago I agreed to be a surrogate for a gay couple. Rachel Berry is my daughter."_

_Jesse was floored. That was the last thing he had been expecting but as he thought about it he realised that it was so obvious. Rachel was like Shelby's mini-me. It made him want to know her even more. It would be difficult now, Shelby was the only adult who actually gave a crap about him and he didn't want to hurt her, but there was something about Rachel. Maybe he could bring them together._

_"I didn't even know her name until today." Shelby continued. "I'm legally obliged to stay away." She answered his silent question. _

"So Shelby didn't ask you to go after her at all?" Andrea asked, not understanding.

"Well not at first. I saw Rachel in the music store and I couldn't resist talking to her. She wasn't what I expected, she was so shy but she got over that quick enough." He laughed slightly. "We went on a date on the Friday but then Shelby called and asked to see me on the Saturday."

_"Come in." Shelby told him, leading him into her kitchen._

_"Why did you want to see me?" Jesse asked curiously._

_"I've can't stop thinking about her." She didn't need to clarify, Jesse was having the same problem. "I want to know her but I can't break the contract."_

_"So what can you do?" He asked uncertainly, not liking where this was headed._

_"I was thinking, you could befriend her and lead her to me. I won't be breaking the contract if she seeks me out."_

_"Shelby-"_

_"I know this is a lot to ask of you Jesse but I can't go on knowing that she's only a few miles away."_

_"Didn't you know that before?" He asked slightly harshly. He didn't want whatever he had with Rachel to become a game or a scheme, he genuinely liked her and this would mess everything up. He also knew that he couldn't tell Shelby that he'd gone after her daughter after everything that she had told him. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Between mother and daughter. One who had done so much for him and the other who could possibly be his soulmate.  
_

_"Probably deep down, but I could pretend that they had moved when she was younger, that they could be anywhere. I can't do that anymore. I've seen her, I need to know her. Please Jesse."_

_"Of course I'll help you." He found himself agreeing. He also knew that once Shelby had a relationship with Rachel she would not want him with her. Sure, Shelby cared about him but he also knew that she knew his reputation with girls and it wasn't one that you would want your girlfriends mother knowing. From this point on he had to see Rachel as an acting exercise. This was not a real relationship, no matter how much he wanted it to be. He would just have to enjoy the short time that he would get with Rachel Berry, but he also knew that reuniting her with her mother was an amazing thing he could do for her. Her questionable fashion sense was a superficial reason enough for that, and her clear insecurities was a further, more important one. Having Shelby in her life would help Rachel, and he would be responsible for that. And then maybe in the future fate would bring them back together._

"Why didn't you just tell Shelby?"

"I told you, Shelby would never let me be with her daughter."

"You were with her anyway."

"She only wanted me to befriend her and at least for Shelby I wasn't being myself anyway. She didn't see it as a real relationship so it wasn't actually me hurting Rachel if you get what I mean."

"But it was real, for you. At least that's what I can make out."

Jesse nodded.

"We should have known something was going on with the way you were on spring break. I mean you can be a dick but you were like a bear with a sore head in San Francisco." Damien added.

"Yeah and so you guys know the rest. Shelby changed her mind, I left McKinley and Rachel and then treated her like shit."

"Why did you do it?" Andrea asked.

"She deserved a clean break. With everything that happened with Shelby I wanted her to be rid of everything that reminded her of that, including me. I figured the only way to really make her let me go was to make her hate me. Finn would pick up the pieces, he was who she wanted anyway and she would forget all about the bastard that screwed her over in high school."

"There's no way someone with your ego believes that."

"I suppose I always figured we'd end up back together at some point. Spending all that time with her made me realise how perfect for each other we actually are. I can't imagine being in a relationship with anyone else. We have the same dreams, we'd meet again, I'd make her forgive me and we'd end up happily ever after." He laughed mockingly. "What if she doesn't make it to that point? What if some point is too late and she dies hating me, without knowing that I actually loved her?"

"That's not going to happen. She'll get through this, she's tough."

"California's turned you soft, man." Chris teased.

"No, just her." He sighed pathetically.

"She's going to be fine, Jesse." Andrea assured him.

Jesse nodded but didn't really believe her.

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A/N: I was going to include Rachel's dads in this chapter but I changed my mind and decided to keep it as just Jesse. I quite like this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it.

I know obviously, that Jesse and Shelby weren't sitting behind them at sectionals but I like the idea of them overhearing everything.

I also don't know what to do about Rachel's Dad's names. Are Hiram and Leroy actually mentioned on the show or is that just something that's come from fandom? Because I don't really like them, they feel a bit stereotypical . I know other authors have used different names but does anyone have any ideas? Would love to hear your thoughts. =]


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